Report: Official Promoted to Top CIA Post Linked to Black Sites, Destruction of Torture Tapes

A Washington Post investigation has revealed a woman recently promoted to head a top CIA division played a key role in the agency’s discredited detention and interrogation program after 9/11 and signed off on a decision to destroy videotapes of torture. The woman, who was not named because she is undercover, served as chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, the CIA’s former head of clandestine operations. In 2005, she and Rodriguez signed an order to destroy tapes of interrogations at a secret prison in Thailand where two prisoners had been waterboarded. According to the Los Angeles Times, she also ran a “black site” prison overseas. The official is mentioned in a Senate Intelligence Committee report that accuses top officers of misleading Congress about the effectiveness of the interrogations. She became acting head of clandestine services at the end of last month. One of the first decisions faced by new CIA Director John Brennan is whether to keep her in the post.

Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan — What price would you pay not to kill another human being? At what point would you commit the offenses allegedly perpetrated by Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was charged Wednesday with desertion and “misbehavior before an enemy?”